Drone Amplified has contracted with the U.S. Forest Service to source and vet U.S.-made drones to fight wildfires with Drone Amplified’s aerial ignition system.
The $750,000 contract is designed to increase and scale the utilisation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for aerial ignitions in fire management and develop the next generation of aerial ignition capabilities.
The move follows the Department of the Interior’s grounding of their fleet of drones that contained Chinese made parts, which made it more difficult to fight wildfires. The U.S. Forest Service has been filling this gap, and now with this investment, the U.S. Forest Service and Drone Amplified are leading the charge to drive domestic drone innovation.
The deal follows the successful development and deployment of Drone Amplified’s aerial ignition system called IGNIS. IGNIS is the only UAS-based aerial ignitions payload available to the U.S. market that is approved for use on Federal prescribed fires and wildfires.
IGNIS’s patented technology carries a payload of standard ping-pong ball sized chemical spheres. It can be integrated with infrared and other types of cameras.
The spheres are pre-loaded with potassium permanganate and later injected with antifreeze prior to being released. The spheres ignite after hitting the ground, setting off back burns to create defensive lines for firefighters in rugged and sometimes unreachable terrain.
“Our unique system has been conceived, developed and manufactured here in the U.S.,” said Drone Amplified Co-Founder Carrick Detweiler.
“IGNIS has been extensively field tested on fires during the 2018 and 2019 fire seasons. It was then approved for use for fuels and wildfire management by the National Interagency Aviation Committee in 2019 and has been actively used by federal, state, and private contractors on numerous fires and prescribed burns ever since,” he said.
